A Suitable Companion

Chapter 17: Festivity derailed

This party invitation raises so many important questions. Like, what am I going to wear? I try to get some help from Charles, asking what the dress code is. He looks absentmindedly surprised, like clothing is of no importance and just say;

"Oh, any cocktail dress would do."

Yeah, like I have a stash of twenty cocktail dresses to choose from. Obviously, I will have to go shopping. I want to bring someone with me to get a second opinion. I know that if I ask Bella, she would choose something which is too slutty for my taste. If I ask Katie, the outfit will be too sensible. So, I bring them both and hope the result will be something in between, but it turns out to be an ordeal to find something which we all can agree on. Too sexy, too boring, wrong colour with my complexion, unflattering model, too short, fabric looks cheap, too sparkling, too Santa-like... I do not know all the various reasons we find to reject dresses. When I'm already exhausted and prepared to give up, Bella sees one more little shop which we have not been to and encourages me to have one last try.

"Because you want to look nice for this date, don't you?

"It's not a date."

The two of them look at each other and giggle.

"If it's not a date Molly, then why are you going to all this trouble? Then you could just have taken any old dress in your closet."

I blush. It is true that I want to look my very best on Saturday, if only to get the pleasure to surprise him, but must they point it out so bluntly.

"It's not a date, all right? But I'll have a try here too."

And there it is, the perfect dress. We see it at once and I think we are all holding our breaths expectantly as I put it on, waiting to see if it lives up to our hopes or if this will fail like all the others did. But it does not. It is red, so very fitting for a Christmas party. A deep kind of red which is both sober and tantalizing at the same time. It hugs my body perfectly, showing my waist, my hips, ending right above the knees and has a slit going perfectly high up on my thigh. It has quite a cleavage which would be vulgar on someone with a huge rack, but with my rather small breasts it just looks elegant and sexy combined. Together with my fair skin and dark hair, it is sensational. Just a bit of red lipstick to go with it and I might have heads turning after me. I look at myself in the mirror and wonder if this is really me – but amazingly enough it is. I pull away the draper of the fitting room and step out to show the others. Bella, Katie and the saleswoman – the jaws drop on all of them, telling me it was not only I who liked it.

"That's the one", says Katie.

"That's definitely the one", Bella whistles.

Saturday evening, he comes around in a cab to pick me up at home, which is a first and it feels very nice. Almost like a proper date.

Nan is quick as a flash to open the door, to get the opportunity to see this man that I'm working for and who now will take me for a party. From upstairs, I hear her babbling on and hope she will not tell him a bunch of embarrassing childhood anecdotes about me before I get there, so I hurry down the stairs.

Oh, holy shit!

I had not realised he would be in dress uniform. I feel my stomach making a summersault. I do not know what to say, if I open my mouth there is a slight possibility I would be drooling. He is just so incredibly handsome. Why does he have to do this to me? I'm too occupied taking him in, to bother with my own entrance and I'm probably stumbling down the stairs rather than gliding gracefully in a manner that would accentuate the dress in the best way.

I'm not sure what reaction I expected from him, but he looks almost shocked. His eyes fixed on me, he parts his lips slightly, but no sound is coming out. When I reach the bottom of the stairs and stand in front of him, we just stare at each other for a moment, until Nan (who we had forgotten) elbows him in the side;